The Balefront Institute
by The Shadow Master of Weapons
Summary: Sometimes being part of a rich and powerful family has its perks. But when your father is a centuries old vampire who would prefer to raise you as daddy's perfect vampire ghostly girl, then things can get awkward and you may want to find a way out into mortal life. Alex is one such case. This is her attempt to find a nice quiet mortal life style.


The Balefront Institute – Alex's Tale

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

Co-author: Asklor

~xXx~

Full Summary: The year is 2020. For several generations, the only abnormal thing in the world have been ghost types, a rare breed of pokémon of an undead decent. Fewer still are the ghost type pokemorphs. Witch hunts, monsters, and otherworldly rumors are nothing more then stories, all accounted to the unusual and sometimes sick humor of aggressive ghost types leading to most of the rest of them being misunderstood. In recent years, ghost types have been readily accepted as their anthropomorphic cousins have stopped their cruel humor and become upstanding members of the community nearly as a whole.

Public opinion on the unknown has always been that it does not exist, nor will such things ever exist. Creatures of an otherworldly decent, the dark arts of magic, and true monsters are mere myths, stories told at night to instill fear, but still just a story. That such things have always been and will always be nothing more then smoke and mirror tricks achieved by use either psychic manipulation or combonations of other abilities and technologies, merely just a trick of the eyes no different then a magician at a child's party.

The truth is that certain groups have been controlling and regulating the flow of "abnormal" denizens for the past 800 years. Currently known as The Balefront Institute, the large scale company is an obscure global corperation that deals in minor medical advancements, advanced circuitry, and clean power. In truth, the company is divided into five separate divisions. The only publicly known division is that which deals with the rest of the world, acting as the medium between mortals and the real divisions of the company. This division is the entire face of the company, and used first and foremost as a large scale cover up to hide global operations for the rest of the company.

The remaining four divisions of the Balefront Institute all deal with abnormal activities. Dealing primarily in research, negotiation, and placement, these three divisions of the company are the true heart of the company. Almost every publically placed abnormal has direct interaction with the company in some way shape or form. All unusual needs for abnormals are handled through through the company ensuring that even peaceful predators need never hunt for prey or are given places where they can hunt without issue. Identities, jobs, living spaces, and so much more are provided by the company as well to help ensure a peaceful and hidden existance for those abnormals who wish to live among mortals.

Sadly, as not all abnormals can be reasoned with, the fifth division deals in containment, and if necessary… extermination of the conflicts between abnormals and pokémorphs.

This is the story of the youngest daughter of the Founder and Leader of the Balefront Institute.

~xXx~

Chapter 1

Curses and Gifts

One would think that the city of Cerris Sonta would be a nice quiet place. The only major thing the city held at all to draw in real business after all was the college. The Cerris Sonta College was the sole source of all higher education in this part of the province that called it home, the smaller province at the tail end of the northern continent of Valeos, as far east as it could get, on a moderate patch of flatlands with large disconnected woodlands, cut off from the rest of the continent by a set of three jagged and deadly mountains. While Cerris Sonta was still large as far as cities in the province got, perhaps among the ten largest in the province even, it really didn't have much though and every thing was aimed at the college and those who went there.

Picked for its location being fairly in the middle of the province making it easy for people to get too, and while always having travel through it, the place was still large in the sense that it took up a lot of space, but it wasn't a big city. It had a few moderate deparement stores, good business district, some book shops, and a few exits to most of the major highways in the region and every major train in the provience ran through the city at some point. All things considered however, unless you wanted to go to school there, pokemon usually just traveled right through the quite and somewhat dull city, maybe spending a night or two there on account of the lenghty drives that could be taken through the province. Aside from the college for that matter were just the Evermoore Hotel Towers, a fancy and pricy, and privately owned, thus still paid for, hotel for all the fancy business men who slept in the town between the long trips from one end of the province to the other. Still, dull didn't always mean boring. And a lack of boredom wasn't always a good thing.

-x-

It was a nasty rainy night almost four months when Alex had been assigned to go pick up after a few literal hellhounds. Not Houndours or Houndooms, but actual literal skinless demonic hellhounds with demonic fire for eyes that hunt for souls to feast upon. While Alex has easily contained all of them, it was the pack master of the hounds that gave Alex trouble and she had lost him. While tracking the pack master down again, she learned that the pack master had turned himself into a beast and taken to the sewers.

While she was stressed and over worked that night, she completely forgot one of the basics about the hunt, look out for civilians. And because she didn't check for civilians around, Luke caught her red handed in the act. Or rather, they collided head first as Alex jumped off a building to dive into an alleyway, with a wire that was still connected to the rooftops incase she needed a quick escape.

When she had dropped down and hit Luke dead on the head with her own, her own personal holo disc had floated down with her where Luke could see it working right in front of his face, which is where Luke got the idea for his project now.

While there was a clean up crew involved and supposedly gave Luke a small memory wipe, nothing serious just hopefully enough to help him forget about what he had seen that night, it was clear that some things remained, which was why he was being watched now, because letting advanced technologies out into the public was generally a bad idea.

-x-

Alex growled some as she rested in the back of the small diner trying to shake her head free from the thoughts of why she was partially so agitated at the moment. Her head was on the table in the small break spot beside the kitchen, the place while running slow for now and filled with only a few pokemon proving to be as exciting as usual for those who worked there during the off hours between the college rushes.

The slightly short weavile sat there taking her break, her large head of crimson hair and crown feathers making her stand out hard amongst the whites and silvers that made up the clean kitchen spaces. Her hair and crown feathers just stood out even amongst the reddish hues of other weaviles, the vibrant and sleek color, a natural one for Alex but less so for other weaviles, much like the gem like stone that sat in her head, which was a powerful shade of purple rather then orange, her eyes a similar shade of purple if contrastly dull compared to shiny gem. Of course the colors of her outfit didn't help, the bright blue top and apron with a dull, but solid red pants that made up the standard outfit for the diner was a heavy contrast and yet nice compliment to her skin tone and hair.

Although Alex didn't have that "shiny" color scheme, it was features like these that Alex hated at times. She didn't want to stand out, she wanted a normal life afterall, a mortal life, something her father fully denied her though.

Looking over for a few, she saw a few shadowy tendrils running along the floor, only to climb up the wall, but she ignored them only for a few before doubling back hard over to them. Such things were common back home in the castle and surrounding estates and never to be looked twice at, but this wasn't the castle, this was in mortal realms.

"What the... Damnit Shenzi, knock it off!" She hissed trying to be heard by the one she was calling out and yet quiet at the same time. The shadowy tendrils quickly backed off and retreated back to the shadows on the floor belonging to an ash black furred vulpix.

"Oh come on... no one is here." The vulpix sighed some, turning from his work at the counter, slicing tomatoes and other veggies for various meals knowing that lunch rush would be coming in less then hour from college.

"I'm not going to cover for you, you stupid fox. You know you can't do that in the open." Alex hissed before getting up and just moving into the back main counter, checking in the gardevoir who was sweeping up the main floor, and giving a sigh of releif that those few "normal" pokemon who were in the diner weren't paying any attention.

"Oh please, we all know 'daddy' wo-" The vulpix started only hear a loud hiss on his other side, a shiver getting sent down his spine as he gulped a bit, slowly looking to the right where Alex had been, and then slowly turning to his left side, where a very angry weavile was now standing.

Her once purple eyes had turned bloody red, a set of large fangs now protruding from her mouth, part of a deathly and angry glare that the weavile was giving the vulpix now. "C-calm down... n-no no reason t-to take any a-any blood from m-me... I taste b-b-bad." The vulpix stated slowing raising his hands and slowly backing away, just to bump into someone behind him, the vulpix looking up to see the gardevoir who had been sweeping floors there behind him, but at least he still looked normal.

"Alex, leave Shenzi be. And Shenzi, if you want to live that lovely half life of yours in full, avoid the topic of Mr. Moon Senior while in the presence of Ms. Moon." The gardevoir stated, still looking at Alex. "Alex, a word please." The gardevoir stated, setting his broom down and then walking into the back room.

Alex was slow to calm down, her eyes and teeth all returned to normal after a few seconds, Alex just looking over the gardevoir.

Dexter was the company's current manager in the province right now. While he was very clearly a gardevoir, it was also just as clear to anyone that Dexter was a male, it wasn't just some questionable thing like most other male gardevoirs. He had some muscles, a nice solid frame, and even while he kept himself very well groomed, only a fool for mistake him for a female. He had cut his hair into a nice slimmed look to avoid that natural helmet look that others had, and the gown that he had evolved with was clearly far less of a dress as it he made it look like a fancy almost clergy like robe. Even then he never wore it, favoring a nice simple men's vest over a good and simple black shirt and rather casual business pants as his normal look, even in the diner that made him very easy to spot and stand out. Unless one was drunk, it really hard to find much to call him a female for any reason if one bothered to even give half a look at him as Alex started after him into the back room.

"Oh, and Shenzi. One more use of your special talents in the open and we'll be rediscussing your pay check, again." Dexter called out, the vulpix just dropping his head in defeat, making a soft mumbled comment about hating the job. "You're allowed to hate it, but as long as you're here, you do it my way." Dexter stated as he waited at the door for Alex to walk in.

Alex just moved into the room, mostly just an office space where the diner did all the paper work and kept the cash and change, and of course the hidden elevator to a basement level that didn't offically exist.

"Alex, you sure you're doing okay?" Dexter asked as he closed door, moving over and taking a seat on the other end of the desk, looking through a few letters that had been dropped off on the desk, before pulling out one that was very different from the others. "You were a bit loud with that hiss, one of the patrons looked around for it."

Alex just sighed again and dropped her head as she took a seat in the corner. "Sorry... long day."

"As your friend, I can have a talk with your father again, about reassigning if you want. Something less public if you'd like. I know you had to forcibly chase off two guys this morning on the way here, and two of the men here were asking for you directly even." Dexter stated opening the lettering and pulling out an strange partchment, cream white and thick, an olden scroll of all things that quickly started to roll itself up as he began to pull it, only for the roll to grow in size, soon almost as wide around as Dexter's arm before it was done and then Dexter just slowly unrolled the top of it to read the scroll.

Alex just looked away a bit more, elbows on her knees to support her chin in her hands. "Its... not like I want them to be there."

"Of course you don't, but they are. I personally don't care if you try to deny your blood, but you still need to work on controlling these abilities or they will never leave you be. And taking the path you have, you have limited options." Dexter said, trying to keep his tone nice and polite, clearly avoiding certain words, but making sure that Alex knew well enough what he was talking about. "You can do many great things if you wanted. Using your own words, you are no prodegy, you may very well have only half the power of some of your siblings at best, but from what I see, these powers will continue to manifest no matter how little you drink. I would suggest that you at least learn enough to understand them. Master Huton has recently renewed his contract with the company after an extended leave and could teach you much if you let him." Dexter continued, the weavile getting annoyed a bit more, but listening.

"I know you hate your parents for forcing you into the Institute like they have, but it really is for your own good. I understand that many abnormals like yourself want mortal lifes with mortal ambitions and dreams, and many can even work to live that life. Its part of what the Institute is all about after all, we help abnormals find mortal ways of life all the time, as best we can at least. I really must remind you though that you are not normal even by abnormal means. Not only are you a strange rarity, having been born dead twice over, but you really do need to learn to defend yourself should someone try to take actions against you. Your Father may not be the most well liked man, but he is very important in our world." Dexter continued not even looking into his desk as he pulled out an unmarked can of liquid and offered it too Alex who just took it and popped it open.

She took a small sip and gave a weak smile again. "Gunga hmmm... just what I would need... Lucky as always."

"I am not lucky, I make my own luck." Dexter smiled some, pulling out a pen and writing a note stating that unmarked bottles were Gunga Juice. "Now then, once you have some of that, care to explain what is really bugging you so much that you have to take it out on every one around you?" Dexter asked, Alex just sipping slowing at the drink.

While it was hardly a favorite, or even well liked by Alex, the juice did have a few unique effects, like slowing the dead, or in Alex's case undead. While less so effective on vampires, it did help quite a bit with ghosts as she sipped at it and took a few deep breathes, before speaking at least.

"Luke's review is coming up again this week and last I heard he... was being watched more then last time... and I'm the one who put him in this mess to begin with." She sighed again. "He will be fine right? All they'll do is just tamper with the disc he is working on right?"

"He's smart, a little too smart sadly. I would have thought that the memory spell would have worked better on him given his condition, but it looks like all that lack of physical training he can't do with his body went to his head. Zepher is still living in his robotic pet snake for the most part and tries to quietly break the disc as much as he can within reason, but the boy is stubborn, maybe more so then you." Dexter smiled. "He's a good kid, and I do my part to keep him safe. As a friend, not your boss, just a friend, you really should be trying to get to know him better. As your boss sadly, I have to remind you to stay away from him for now unless you want to abuse your status in the company. I hope you only half listen and might try abusing your status to get your way on some things with him." Dexter said just slowly turning around and getting up with the rolled up scroll and starting to walk through back wall, the wall while solid to mortals, merely an illusion to abnormals like the staff. "Oh, just a reminder, Luke is up for review on Thursday. Barring any problems, he'll pass and won't be interfered with more then he is right now." Dexter stated stopping halfway in the wall and turning to face Alex. "Finish your drink in the meantime and then get back to work. You can work the register if you think that might help when the rush comes, just have Tina work the tables in your place." He stated before moving fully through the wall.

Alex just sighed again and nodded some, getting up and sipping at her drink some more before leaving the room and heading back out into the kitchen for now.

She took her time finishing the drink, Shenzi working twice as hard as before, mumbling to himself, but his shadow stayed entirely put with him now as he worked, not even looking to Alex as she moved up to check over the rest of the diner, just the staff present now trying to finish up getting ready for the lunch run that would take place soon.

Alex just looked outside for a few, before moving over to Tina, a standard looking marill girl. "Hey, Tina. I've got the register for the lunch rush. Dexter says it might be better for me there today." Alex said as she moved up.

"Aye. But you realla shouldn't let ya abilitas get the betta o ya. You needa enjoy yoursalf a bit mar. Oh... stupid tonga changing back on ma agan." Tina started only to growl some herself, reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a drink herself, only to swish the stuff around in her mouth, before swallowing. "There, much better." She smiled. "Silly moon lights got me trying to change some here. Sure it helps us stay calmer than in direct sunlight, but its not easy being knowing I'll be changing in full soon." The marill said looking around to make sure that they were still alone in the diner now, and only staff were present with the last batch of customers all gone for now.

"I can't wait to read that report." Alex smiled. "Last I heard your mother gave them a run through half the province when she got out on her first change."

"I do hope I'm not as bad... but, it could be fun..." Tina giggled. "Oh, is that Luke? Bit early today, must have finished his labs up ahead of time and the professor got tired of him using the spare time on his own projects."

Alex just sighed some moving over and turning towards the front window where a slightly shorter lucario was moving around the building to the door. Sure enough, it was Luke, the one supposedly good friend that Alex had in the city who didn't know about her conditions, if only out of sheer luck. She just pulled out her order sheet and moved to his usual spot, the same one he always tried to take in the corner that was out of the way.

"Hey Alex." The lucario smiled as he lugged his large backpack around, setting it on the table and yawning a bit as he rubbed his eyes.

"You know, I'm the nocturnal one here. You really need to stop that yawning and sleep at night." Alex tried to joke some, Luke smiling.

"Long night, couldn't sleep. Too many ideas." Luke said as he pulled out some files from his pack and began looking them over again.

"Want the usual or something to help wake you up?" Alex asked as she let him take his seat, already writing down his normal drink.

"Hmm... nah we'll just go with the usual. Oh, and a strawberry cream shake... make it a medium, its a bit hot out there today." Luke said, Alex quickly writing it down.

"Give us about 5 minutes to do the shake and it will all be out." Alex said turning and heading into the back. "Hey Shenzi, got an order for ya. Large shake though. My treat to him, and tell him that and I crack your skull open." She stated firmly, but quietly enough that Luke or anyone else wouldn't hear. As she was walking away, she could hear the vulpix make a comment about Alex being scary, Alex only stopping for a second, but letting it go. She then just took a seat and waited for now, watching as Luke just did his normal thing, mostly ignoring everything there as he just pretty much sat there in his own little world, pulling out his computer and going to work, already oblivious to the things going on around him.

It didn't take too long before Shenzi called out for Alex again, Alex getting up and going to get the food, heading back over to him. "So, you get kicked out of classes early again for working on your own stuff?" Alex asked as she brought his chicken sandwich to him, setting that down along with his can of sprite and of course his milkshake.

"Yeah, something li... that's a medium?" Luke asked seeing the milkshake.

"Guy before you ordered one and already paid for it, but he left before you got here. Don't see a point letting it go to waste." Alex smiled some, Luke nodding some and smiling himself a bit. "Don't worry about the cost difference, its already been made up so no worries. Lucky you someone else likes strawberry cream too." Alex smirked.

"Thanks." Luke smiled. "I'll probably be here for a while, you don't mind if I use the outlet do you?" He asked.

"Last I checked you're still attending college right? Its kind of one of the hangouts for the place. You know that by now. Just no more custom projects like the last one." Alex grinned, Luke always was a nice kid, always polite and asking things even when he knew he had permission to do things. Each booth had a dual outlet for college students to plug in computers or other things for school work or even other things as long as they ordered a meal, or at least a few drinks anyway. More than once the diner had been filled with a massive study group, every booth with snacks and computers trying to get some college work done.

"I just like to make sure." Luke smiled and plugged his computer in before starting on his sandwich as Alex went back to main counters, and checked over the racks there for quick snacks and energy drinks, making sure that were full knowing that it was almost time for the lunch rush to move in. "Tina, you seen Quint yet? Shenzi is going to get over worked without his other chef here." Alex called out not noticing the new comer moving to enter the diner, Alex just making some notes on the various things she would need to bring up to the shelves, mostly just a few extra boxes of energy drinks just to be safe for the incoming crowd.

No one even noticed the larger machamp enter the diner and take a seat at the counter as Alex kept up her work. "Nope, sorry Alex. Haven't heard him yet. But he had better get here soon." Tina called back from the other end of the diner. "Oh, hello sir. Let me just finish up here and I'll be right with you."

"Take your time." The strange male voice called out, Alex only turning long enough to get a look at the machamp before heading into the back with her list of things to take up front. She quickly moved to the side storage room and looked over the stock of drinks, finding the ones she needed and putting them on a cart to take back up front, filling up the cart just to be safe and then heading back out.

As she came back out of the kitchen though, Alex couldn't help but feel that man was doing a little too much looking at her, and she also didn't like the suit he was in, he just seemed to fancy and overly full of himself, Alex having seen that look he gave her many times before.

As she started to refill the shelves, opening up boxes of various energy drinks and things so that they could be easily grabbed and handed out with the up coming crowds, Alex couldn't help but feel the machamp staring hard at her, even as Tina took his order.

"Sorry, bad traffic. Avoid fifth street if you can." Another voice called out, along with a loud bell that sat over the door, the blaziken panting a bit as he rushed past the counters.

"You're almost late again Quint. Leave sooner if you have to instead of waiting for the last minute." Alex called out already getting a bit annoyed again as she finished with the shelves and just stacked a few extra boxes of the drinks underneath the counter.

"I told you it was bad traffic. Shipping Truck got stuck on that hard turn by the apartments, spent over an hour stuck in traffic because it! That's how early I left okay." Quint yelled back, a few minutes later coming back out in the usual diner garb. "I even skipped heading over to Game Land to get that dungeon crawler you keep talking about. It will be closed by the time my shift is over thank you very much, so yes I did rush to get over here from that mistake." He stated, Tina just handing him the machamp's order as he went back to start cooking up the country steak meal. "Oh, and I ran into Joel. He said he still wants that date. I don't think the kick to the groin you gave him last week stuck, try harder next time. Make him bleed if you have to, I think we all hate that guy as much as you do."

Alex just grumbled a bit as she heard his last words, but nodded some. She just moved out from the counter again and back towards Luke, only to sigh when she saw what he pulled out again, a large frisbee like disc that was almost as large as a medium pizza, if almost an inch thick.

Alex just shook her head a bit and then moved up. "You're not bringing another bomb in here? I don't mean to be rude, but didn't you pay enough with the last one?" Alex teased. While it wasn't really a bomb that Luke had brought, just some new custom computer that Luke built. It even operated on a fully customized and hand built operating system, with no pre-ordered parts at all, all buit from scratch that had built into the inside of a breif case to make it semi-travel ready, mostly so Luke could work on it wherever. While it was working fine at first, the briefcase computer eventually started to spark, and then blew a pair of fuses in the diner. While Luke of course paid for everything he damaged, and was asked not to plug anything other then standard devices into the offered electrical sockets, it was still a surprise to everyone there that day.

"No no, this is just something I dremt up one night." Luke smiled having finished his sandwich to work on his new project, just sipping at his drink now. "I'm hoping that I can get it working soon, but its a fun and challenging set of problems. It blows through fuses like it was popcorn at times, so I've got some industrial ones on that way... They should have been here already, but they got lost on the way." Luke sighed.

"So... what is it?" Alex asked, already knowing the answer. The entire reason Luke was working on this new project was because Alex had majorly screwed up on the other part of her job, the night shift where she dealt with other abnormals, but the uncivilized variety as a means of a training program.

"I'm not sure what to call it yet, but basically its a hologram projector. Well, a super small one." Luke said as he looked up to Alex. "I'll say this much, its power hungry. I can't get it working for long, but I'm hoping this new battery I made will work. You know that battery I'm making for my science project." Luke smiled.

"I see." Alex said. "Well... I hope that you at least get some use out of that battery. You've really worked on it. I hear you had to take out a loan to get all the parts of it. I hope you aren't trying to spend all your funds making this now." Alex added, really concerned for him.

"Nah, don't worry. I got a few extra grants of my own this year to work on larger projects, they just came this semester though. Being a straight A student has it perks." Luke smiled as he looking over the disc, checking all the fuses he had in it, as well as the wiring, before pulling out a large blocky device, that almost looked like a car battery, but only a third of the size, unwrapping some wires from around it and then plugging it into the center of the disc.

Alex just watched as it slowly light up a bit, and then six small panels on the very edge of the device raised up showing a small projector from each that were aimed at the center of the disc. It took a few, but slowly colored cubes began to appear like 3D pixels that slowly spelled out the word "testing", adding one 3D pixel at a time before the word just dropped down into the base of the device to vanish and then started again. The pixels were far from perfect, each one fuzzy and not fully faded in right, some missing entirely here and there, but it was clear that for what it was, the device was an early free form holo-gram projector.

While holo-gram technology wasn't so fully new as to be special for the sheer fact of how rare it was, it was something of a rarity based on the process that it took to work properly. Fully 3-Dimensional Holo-grams were actually one of the new standards in maps for buildings, even the Cerris Sonta College had one for its maps and information stations, and even a few more for other things, even the movie theater had a single Holo-Film Booth.

The thing that made the holo-grams work, but difficult at the moment was the glass case that the light was projected into. Thousands of tiny glass cubes made to hold the light from projectors and give them a full 3D feel were the secret to the holo-gram at the moment as far as the mortal realm was concerned. These cubes would fill up a general case that the holo-grams would be displayed in and then it was easy with the right kind of projectors to make any kind of fully 3D objects in any combonation of colors one wanted.

For what Luke was using though, he didn't need that glass case to make it work. Sure there were problems, but if anyone had been around, they would have to admit that Luke was onto something if they knew even the basics of holo-grams at work.

"Well, its a very clear start, but messy." Alex stated diverting her eyes some when one of the projects caught her right in the eyes a bit, Alex looking around to see other stray bits of light on the walls and ceiling. "Could you turn it off before you turn the diner into a disco though." She teased, Luke looking around only to grumble and turn it off, and just in time, a bit of smoke was rising from one of the wires and fuses.

While it would confuse Luke, Alex could see well enough that it was Zepher, the technology ghost inside the disc that had made it over heat again to keep Luke from advancing too far with the technology. It was only her abnormal senses including that of her abnormal sight of course that let her see it, but the tell tale traces of a tech ghost messing around improperly inside the disc were easy to spot for one like her.

"Sorry. Like I said its a challenge, but a fun one. At times it almost feels like its fighting me, but aren't the hardest challenges the most rewarding?" Luke smiled giving another small yawn as he made sure that nothing was seriously wrong with the device, before packing it up, and looking over his laptop for all the data he got, quickly finding a few points in the code that were causing problems.

Alex couldn't help but sigh. While Luke was no prodegy by what she knew such true destined beings of greatness were, Luke would change the world around him if given half a chance as far as mortals were conerned. The understandings of normal physics and the digital age would be nothing but toys to him if he had the funds work like he wanted to, but everyone had their problems, Luke perhaps far more so then realized, and Alex couldn't help but feel guilty about being part of the reason why.

"Just take it easy and slow Luke. You really should work on something solid first, get some cash coming in and get a job first before spending so much doing these side projects. We both know that while you love them and they go far in your own eyes, only a few of them will actually be done in the end. You've got too many and you never stop thinking up more." She said just handing the bill for his food and then going to leave him, knowing that he would pay it when he ready to leave, which could be in the next few minutes as soon as he finished or he had been known to spend hours in the diner just tinkering away as long as the place didn't get overly crowded anyway.

As Alex made her way back to the counter though, she once again caught the machamp looking at her, quietly growling to herself mostly as she started to head behind the counter again. Even as she started to give the counters by the register one last wipe again to keep busy, she could feel his eyes upon her as tried to ignored him, feeling that she very well why he was watching her.

"Ey, Alex. The back cooler could use a few more Red Tauros. I looked in back and think you got the last boxes of em to fill the front shelves." Tina yelled from the side dining area, just barely peaking out to make sure Alex heard.

Alex just looked under the counter and nodded. "Yeah, give me a second to dry the counter and I'll bring two boxes back." Alex replied before moving over to the kitchen window. "Hey, add Red Tauros to the list again. And make sure its marked for double this time. That's three times we've run low this month." Alex stated to Quint who nodded.

"Will do boss lady." Quint stated as he continued to help Shenzi finish cutting up veggies and moved on to prepping bacon and other quick meats that would be best to have a small stock pre-cooked a bit given that B.L.T.s and other sandwichs were one of the best sellers in the diner.

"And don't call me boss lady again." Alex stated, but let it slide as she moved under the counter to get those boxes for Tina, moving back out to drop them off for Tina. Alex did keep a bit of distance between herself and the machamp though as she moved past him to give the boxes to Tina. With those dropped back off, she did a quick look over the rest of the back dining area for anything else, the place nice and cleaned and well stocked for now anyway.

Hearing the bell over the door ring again, Alex moved up to see a few people coming in at last, appearing an early start for the lunch rush. "Be right with you." Alex called out.

"You're fine, let me get an apron and I'll start taken orders." Another female voice called out, Alex looking over to see that last two waiters for the day showing up, and just in time as she looked out the window, appearently the few people that had walked in with them were just the start of what Alex assumed to be a larger crowd coming. Down the street, she could see a large group of students leaving the lecture hall from the college, having appearently gotten out early.

"Just in time Tonya, Judith. Lecture hall let out by the looks of it." Alex stated nodding down the street, the absol turning and sighing herself.

"Welp so much for an easy start for the day, thought I had some time still." Tonya said as she let the crowd in front of her move to take up a few booths, heading behind the counter to get her apron and put her things in her locker before starting.

As Alex was walking back up to the front again though, a bit distracted trying to see if any other of the college buildings had students being let out early, she felt a hand reach back and fully grab her rear.

Everyone aside from the staff quickly turned from the scream of rage as Alex just turned and grabbed the Machamp's hand and the back of his neck, not just lifting, but entirely flipping the much larger male clean into the air and what should have been right into a table, possibly clean out the window even.

Instead of hitting the table however, the very shocked and now in pain machamp hit a powerful green layer of light, bouncing off the now protected table, and towards the windows, which quickly gained the same green light.

Reguardless, the machamp was now double over in pain, one hand on his back, another on the back of his neck, and a third hand holding the one that Alex had grabbed and used to throw him. Although Alex had once again grown her fangs, everyone in the room could only see the very angry weavile, the slim and supposedly smaller girl having just, for an practical purposes, lifted and threw the larger pokemon clean out the window if not for the help of the gardevoir whose hand was up enacting the barrier to protect the diner standing in the door between the kitchen and the front room. "Alex, a word." Dexter stated, slowly lifting the Machamp up and righting him with his powers before gently setting him down at the booth he had been tossed.

"Sorry for the interuption, please carry on." Dexter stated, the normal folk in the diner slowly turning back to their own groups and work, most of course having started to pull out tablets or laptops much like Luke was using. Quint just shook his head as he moved out from the kitchen towards the machamp, a glass of water in hand and some pain pills in the other moving past Alex and Dexter.

"Dude, you were right there when I said she already kicked another guy in the dick and told her to maybe make him bleed next time. What could have possessed you risk that." Quint sighed as he handed the machamp the glass of water and then the few pills. "These should help. Nice little herbal remeby. Bitter and sour, but they work great."

Alex just slowly backed into the kitchen, following Dexter as he headed for the office again, this time for a different reason. Once he reached the office, he moved under another set of shelves and unlocked the mini-fridge that was there, before pulling out a chilled glass and a small pouch of red liquid setting them both on a tray for Alex. "Drink. All of it." Dexter commanded, Alex just hissing a bit as she took the small bag and slowly tore the slot open before putting it into the cup, the smell of blood already in the room.

Although Alex hated it, she knew she didn't have a choice now as she sipped at the drink that was forcibly given to her, taking a seat again. "Now, Alex. We all saw that machamp grab you, and that's what the report will say. This does not however give you the right to try power bombing the mon through a table, even if he is a fighting type." Dexter stated. "You have two minutes to calm down or I'm sending you home for the day. You need to start drinking more on your own and maybe you would be less likely to show your fangs every time to get angry. I know when you get angry your thirst shows easily, but this is getting out of hand." Dexter explained giving her a few to finish the two ounce pack of blood he made her drink.

"I don't want any more blood." Alex grumbled as she looked off to the side again.

"You right. You don't want any more blood. You need more." Dexter stated. "I'm writing a note to your father to send more. As your guardian and handler, I'm bumping you up to no less than five ounces of blood a week now. Offically, its all going to pure untreated, with at least one ounce of virgin weekly. Unoffically, I'm still willing to go along with this ideal that you hate it and I can understand it. I'll arrange for more selective bloods to be given to you in place of what your father sends, but I'm still making the offical changes." Dexter continued. "You can't deny what you are. I can help you keep yourself as mortal as you can get and once you've been trained fully and have figured out how much blood you need to stay in control, you'll have your own life for the most part, but outbursts like this, where you show you need more blood..." Dexter said just looking at her.

"I don't want anymore blood." Alex stated again finally looking at him fully, her eyes still very blood red and shifting some, showing her vampire abilites to some degree.

"You aren't the first seductress vampire I've worked with. That aura of yours that makes you appear as a dream girl to the mentaly foolish but physically healthy enough to be bled can only be suppressed so much by our magics. And the more you clearly need extra blood, the stronger it gets. You need to work on finding a balance between the two and starving your abilities is not the right way to do this." Dexter stated. "Can you work the diner or do I need to send you home for the day?" Dexter asked.

"Send me home? Come on, it was just one guy." Alex grumbled.

"That you tried to crash through a table and possibly out the window." Dexter reminded her. "I'm doing the best I can here on my end. You wanted away from the castle and the villa, into a mortal city. This is as good as it gets for you right now, but if you can't control your abilities as well as you might like, then your father will take you back home where you'll be among more of your kind and you can't keep hiding that you're actively suppressing your powers there. I understand that you hate the life you're in, but I can only do so much to help you. You are the daughter of what may be the most powerful man in history, of course you're being hand cared for by him if can help it. He's old, and he is a traditionalist. And yes, the way of world is vastly different for you both, you literately live in different ages. He has never not lived in a dark castle surrounded by creatures of the night, while you grew up talking to other people across the planet with the internet. Its a very different world now, but it doesn't make that much of a difference to him." Dexter explained, pulling out a check book and writing her a check, as well as writing up a second one for the diner's expenses, putting them both into envelopes, and then handing them to Alex.

"Spend an hour down in the basement if you don't think you can handle being touched right now. Otherwise, you can take these to the bank right now and then head home for the day. There should be a bus stop by the bank if you insist on heading back to your apartment, otherwise you can just walk right next door or maybe even call that penthouse that your father set up for you while out here. They can give you a ride anywhere you want to go." Dexter told her, Alex just grumbling a bit more. "Now that you've had something to drink, you shouldn't be so needy and that aura of yours has already calmed down a bit. You shouldn't have any other problems with it for today, but if this keeps up, I'm going to make you drink an ounce of blood in front of me every day of the week if that's what takes for a while to help you find a balance between curbing your thrist enough not to openly show your fangs all the time and controlling your anger enough to not let people see those fangs when you get angry."

"Fine fine..." Alex just growled a bit, her eyes finally back to their normal dull purple shade at last as she took the envelopes.

"And yes, that amount is higher than usual, your father sent seven gold coins this week instead of the usual five. I've put four into the vault in your name this time. He's bumped your allowance again in the hopes that maybe you'll go to a club or bar or something to look for someone to drink from. Personally, I would consider spending something of that small forture you're just sitting on and maybe get some new games. They are coming out with a new generation of game systems this year, and while it would be pricy, we know that you can get early access to some of them, including the new Severence Soul and that zombie series of game you like is getting a remake or something." Dexter stated earning a strange look from Alex. "Its been an aggressive ad campaign this year for the new games. The older groups don't like this new comer stepping on their toes and taking their sales. I may not play many games, but I do stream and watch a lot of comedy shows. Its not like I can avoid all the ads. And yes, I do pay attention to the conversations that go on in my diner. For some reason almost all of you working here right now are big time gamers, so I have learned a few things."

"O-okay then." Alex stated, now genuinely surprised at Dexter, having never thought of him to be the kind of man to know anything about gaming.

"Now get out. Go to the bank and then find something, anything to do and calm down for the rest of the day." Dexter smiled. "And yes, I'll cover this up with your father so there's not a big scene." He stated getting up and moving back to the door, letting Alex out to get her things and head out for the day.

It took her a few to get her things gathered up and get back into her preferred black demin jeans and "horror" themed gaming t-shirt, as well as unbraid her hair to let it just fall free over her back. Perhaps the longest thing to put back on was to slip on her belt and adjust her satchel. Alex was still looking for a few belt to clip it on, but finding a good black either black nylon or leather one that just had the feel for all the game badges was proving hard. She was just overly picky about what kind of belt she wanted it clipped to in the end, but was a little hesitant to custom order a belt for it. Still, the satchel easily stood out on the back of her hip on the right side, starting with a Halo emblem, but decorated with all sorts of things ranging from Silent Hill and Dead Space to Minecraft and Slime Rancher, even having badges and icons for things like Mortal Kombat and Ratchet & Clank games covering it.

With her game satchel at last on her side, she just sighed some pulling out the small tube that held her unique amulet, the same one that was issued in some for to pretty much everyone in the diner for now. She just looked over the small scorpion like decoration, held it up to the lights, making sure that it was glowing just a bit, showing that it had taken in all the power it would need while stored for a while. Taking her amulet once more and making sure it nice and snug against her skin between her breasts under her shirt, there was the slightest pinch from it as it stuck firmly to her skin now. The amulet was perhaps the most important thing she wore right now, as it helped her walk in open sunlight.

While the lights of the diner all looked normal by any means to the naked eye, they actually cast off moon light instead of florencent lighting, or even LED lighting. This let the staff rest very comfortably at all times of the day no matter what kind of abnormal they were. The windows were etched with invisible runes and spell tags that abnormals could see showing the diner as a place of safety as well as who really ran the establishment. In any case, the runes served their purpose well and didn't let any harmful rays or even other magics into the diner at all.

Being a vampire, Alex had a rather harsh aversion to the sun at times, but part of her blood, or rather the blood of her father specifically that was running through her viens meant that as long as she didn't flat out starve herself to the point of exhaustion, at most she would merely get burned easily and might catch on fire that could hurt and may eventually lead to her having to retreat to her coffin to rest and recover. As long as she was at least drinking enough blood to stay semi-healthy, then she shouldn't suffer any serious effects from the sunlight alone. The amulet still served to bolster natural resistances, and even add many more spell shields over her that like the runes on the windows, would protect her and let her live a mortal life. Despite that, the tiny sting of it biting into her and slipping into a vien to draw power to protect her still hurt a bit though as she was at last ready and put the envelopes into her bag before getting ready to head out.

As she headed out and through the main floor again though, the machamp from earlier, now back at his original spot saw her coming and went to raise a hand, only for Tina to turn his chair and make sure he was looking right at her. "Sir, I'm going to go ahead and do us all a favor, cause I don't feel like cleaning up any blood today." Tina stated very firmly. "If the next words out of your mouth to the young lady is not the single most proper, formal, and polite apology you have ever given, I won't even try to stop her as she flat out castrates you." Tina just flat out said to his face before turning him back around, only for the machamp to gulp a bit and practically shrink down on his stool, letting Alex move past unhindered without a word, the machamp just pulling out a notebook and almost whimpering to himself as he went about his own business.

Alex just smiled a bit, at least some of the others at the diner had her back, not that she really needed them to. She was pretty sure that she had set the machamp well on his way to start behaving in public if he was truly a pig, and if it was just her aura of lust that had gotten to him that badly, then at least he would learn to keep his hands off next time.

"Oh... Alex you leaving early?" Luke asked seeing her move up. "You okay after that?"

"I'm fine. Dexter just thinks I need a break for now." Alex said. "You keep up the work on that battery. If it runs half as good as you seem to think you made it, then I'll need a few in case of power outages again. A few days without games really gets on my nerves." She said faking a smile.

"H-hey, can you give me a few. I could walk with you if you wanted. We were going to try for that Halo Tournement at Game Land, or would you prefer to skip it given what happened?" Luke asked.

"I get the feeling that Dexter might want me to skip it... you go have fun. I'll just take a rain check on the match and we'll go head to head another time." Alex said as she started to walk off, only to stop and turn remembering what Dexter had said as her friend about Luke. "Hey... on second thought, you can join me. Maybe a guy walking with me might be enough to drive off any would be pervert. I've got to stop by the bank and it will be kind of crowded on the way out."

"W-well I can't say my intimidation is great, but if you think it'll help, s-sure." He smiled and nodded. He started to shut down his laptop before putting all his materials away. "I do have this one device I can use in a fight, something else I finished a few months back." He said as he finished up, before moving over to pay for his meal and then moving to head to her side as she waited at the door.

"Thanks for this." Alex sighed some as she turned to head outside, shielding her eyes from the light for a few, pulling out a set of sungalsses even as she walked with him.

"You sure you're okay... I... I uh... you really did a n-number on that guy." Luke asked as they moved along the road heading away from the incoming college crowd thankfully, Luke keeping up with Alex and understanding her speedy pace for now.

"I'm fine, its just... I'm just stressed a bit. Finals and all that, not to mention some family issues that I'd rather avoid." Alex explained as they moved along, walking towards the down town city blocks for the bank.

"I can understand that. I've got some family problems, or had some before. I know how that feels though." Luke said as he kept up. "H-hey, can you hold up for a second?" Luke asked as they reached the local candy shop. "Sorry, got a sweet tooth, c-can you give me a second?"

Alex just smirked a bit, shaking her head, but looking to him. "Go on, I can wait, just don't make me wait through that incoming crowd." Alex smiled, letting him go get something to snack on.

Luke just nodded back and rushed inside the door, already knowing what he wanted and rushing to the counter. "I'll take two full boxes of the cadberry." Luke said pointing over to the caramel eggs, getting a strange look from the cashier but reaching back and pulling out to boxes.

"Anything else?" The cashier asked.

"Yeah, a six pack of Dr. Pelipper if you have it in stock." Luke asked, the cashier getting some and then rigning it up. Luke just smiled as he paid cash, putting most of it into his bag, but leaving two bottles of the soda out, as well as a few eggs, then heading back out to meet with Alex.

"S-sorry, didn't mean to m-make you wait." he smiled, offering her a few eggs and bottle of Dr. Pelipper. "My treat." He smiled.

"O-oh... Thanks." Alex smiled, taking the eggs and Dr. Pelipper, just putting the eggs in her satchel for now, but sipping at the drink.

"You look like you n-need it." Luke smiled, unwrapping an egg and savoring it slowly. "You do like the eggs right?"

"Yeah, I like em. I just kind of like my chocolate frozen. Guess its just something from my type." Alex smiled as she moved to start heading for the bank again.

"Yeah, I like it f-frozen sometimes too." Luke smiled just taking his time with the egg, small bites and all that to make it last, or hoped it would. More then once, Luke had bought a box of the chocolate eggs or other caramel filled chocolates, only to not pay attention and eat them all in a day.

"At least they usually last longer frozen." Alex teased, knowing he had a sweet tooth, just not to what extent. "Come on, I'd rather get in and out of the bank before it gets too crowded." Alex said looking back and already seeing a larger group of college students flooding the streets around the college.

"Yeah, sure we can speed up a bit. I'm doing good today." Luke smiled as Alex sped up a bit, but hearing his words, Alex smiled and moved up into a full power walk now, Luke keeping pace with her as he walked with her. "You have any plans for the r-rest of the day?" He asked.

"Not really... I was going to just finish the work day, then go to Game Land for that bit of Halo, but not now... just... I'm just not sure." Alex explained as they rounded the corner and could see the bank Alex used, a very fancy branch of the Xatu Lifetimes Bank, one of the larger but perhaps still friendly bank lines in the country. Perhaps a bit bigger then one would have thought for the town, but it was connected to the Evermoore Hotel Towers, so it was of course a bit more fancy then people might be use to.

After the last bit of a short walk up to the bank, Alex walked in, a greeter already there. "Ah, Ms. Moon. You are here very early. We didn't expect you until tonight. Will you be making the usual five grand deposit and withdrawing a thousand in cash?" The greeter stated, his voice still low as to afford some privacy, but with Luke right there with her, the greeter merely assumed that Luke knew all of this already and cared nothing for any other points of privacy besides a quite tone.

For Luke though, a rapid look of shock and an almost dropped jaw spread over his face, first for the amount, but then more so for the name, one that was known well enough if one paid attention. "Can I have a word with your manager about your complete lack of privacy?" Alex hissed loudly, the gengar backing up a few.

"Just... just shut up and get me a back room." Alex finished after a few, the gengar nodding some as she moved into the bank, the gengar making a quick call for someone to come up and talk with Alex.

"S-should I j-just wait he-ere?" Luke asked after a few of following Alex into the bank, someone moving over from the back to greet Alex.

"Ms. Moon, you have a guest today?" The larger Bayleaf lady asked in a full suit, Luke feeling very much out of his league surrounded by so much right now, and then of course there were the new questions of Alex.

"Luke is here with me for a bit today, yes. Dexter kicked me out of the diner for the rest of the day." Alex explained. "I have my own check and one from the diner."

"I see, very well. Shall we head into the back?" The bayleaf asked as she stepped aside and merely with a hand motion guided Alex and Luke into the back. "Will you be making the usual deposit and withdrawl today, Ms. Moon?" She asked.

"Uh... well no. My... father has increased my allowance." Alex stated after a few. "He's moved up to... well seven... units... I'll be depositing an amount worth three units." Alex stated trying to be careful as she picked and hopefully chose her words well, the bayleaf entirely understanding the words as she allowed them into the back taking them to a desk in a small private room.

"Very well. Will you be making the same withdrawl or will you get be adjusting that amount accordingly?" The bayleaf asked as she moved over and closed the blinds in the room, already knowing about Alex's condition and abilities in full.

"Let's just keep it... no... no here." Alex stated taking a small notepad off the table and writing an amount on it, clearly four digits from what Luke saw, maybe having seen her write something like 3500. While he didn't want to pry, he couldn't help but question and just notice things right now, his curiosity was peaked whether he wanted to be curious or not.

"I'd prefer it in a private envelope. Dexter also made mention that maybe... you can get access to the new... You know my hobbies, can you get me some early access to a few things?" Alex asked still trying to keep a few things between them.

"I will talk with Dexter and see what I can do. He has more contacts about such things then I do would be the person to help direct the inquires to the proper people. I will of course make the arrangements once I know who to talk with." The bayleaf said, looking over the amount as Alex pulled out the two envelopes with the checks, handing them both to the bayleaf as well. "We might be able to find some slots for beta-testers that are open." She stated opening the check for Alex first and looking over the check. "Will this withdrawl be in the usual preferred bills, or would you pre some larger bills for this withdrawl given the size?" She asked reaching into a drawer at her side, unlocking it and waiting for an answer.

"I'll just take the usual preference in bills, but... no, make a little more than half of that in big bills." Alex stated, the baylead just nodding again and starting to count bills as far as Luke could tell, before stacking them nice and neat into a pair of banker's envelopes, sealing them and then handing the well stuffed packages to Alex, who put it away in her satchel.

"Will there be anything else today, Ms. Moon?" The bayleaf asked

"No... I think that will do it. Just remind your greeters about privacy." Alex stated.

"Very well. I shall remind them all about choosing their words properly. Do you need any assistance today sir?" The bayleaf turned now looking to Luke.

"N-no. I have an account with Blue Latoad Banking on the edge of town." Luke said, just trying to keep up with everything he had never meant to actually learn about one of his better friends, and still hoped would prove to be a better friend.

"Very well Sir. May you both have a nice day." The bayleaf said as she got up along with Alex and Luke. "I will see you later and hopefully have some information for you. May you enjoy the rest of the day Ms. Moon." She added as she guided them out, following them along to the door, where she made a similar hand motion to the genger inviting him into the back now.

"Ms... Moon huh?" Luke finally spoke up as they left the bank, Alex just looking around some as she started for the bus stop, only to stop and look back at Luke.

"Yeah... that's right. You never have heard my last name have you..." Alex said.

"Any... A-any relation to Nudra Moon?" Luke asked slowly, looking up to the Evermoore Hotel Towers, as it was Nudra's name on the building, the rich and private funder who made a surprising killing off of the good accomodations for the high end business men who would frequently stop in Cerris Sonta because that's just where all roads met in the province.

"I don't exactly see eye to eye on things with my parents, but its as close to freedom as I'm going to get. At least I'm pretty much paying for everything here on my own. I just use their money for the college. Don't have any scholorships since my parents live across the ocean, so its all coming of my... or their pockets." Alex explained. "Why do you want know?" She asked, her own curiosity peaked now, knowing that he was a good kid, just had too many questions, perhaps part of why he was so smart.

"I... well I was going... I was going to ask i-if Mrs. Nudra Moon might be an investor for some of these things. I've got the batteries almost done, but I-I've got plans for bigger ones, like a generator even, better then some of the ones the school can make even. It's just expensive to build, but all the numbers are good, and small scale tests ran better then expected even." Luke started. "Look, just ne-nevermind. I'll ask someone else later. Don't mention it to your mother, I'd r-rather not try using you for a-a good word. Just don't tell her about this... ever... okay?"

Alex just smiled, part of why she liked him was that he was so honest, and never tried to take advantage of people. "I hope my "rich" family doesn't change anything. I'm not scary or anything now that you think I have money do you?" She asked waiting for him to catch back up to her and then start walking again.

"No... its just surprising is all. I always thought that because the school owned the diner or something, you got discounts on all your books or things. I know you're taking some larger and pricy classes, but its not my place to p-pry about things." He said, Alex just smiling more.

"You're a good friend Luke. I hope you always are." Alex smiled. "Well I... I guess I have a day free now, but no idea what to do. Any ideas?"

"Well... there's that new arcade on 9th by the Waffle House. Its expensive, but one of my online buddies swears by the name. I haven't been there personally, but Tamilo88 says that he'd pay the hundred bucks for an all day pass there without any regrets, and I know this guy well enough to say for certain that he'll wait for sale day for any game." Luke offered.

"Hundred bucks entrance fee huh... and what all does that get us?" Alex asked, a little cautious, but still willing to listen.

"Well, according to the flyer I got, its an all day pass for all the console games, you do have to take turns though, mostly based on lifes or something, depends on the game. It gets you two larger drinks, and two snacks as well. The biggest thing is the the place gives free ports for charging and legit high speed internet." Luke explained. "They also have some other things as well. A basic two hour pass for 40, one drink included, and wifi pass. There is a pay to play plan, something like 5 bucks per game based on half hour fees, no food or drink. That one is good if you only have like an hour or something and want to try a specific game. And a few other plans. I think the biggest one though is that you can rent a private game booth. Its like a diner booth, but larger, supposed to be lots of leg room. They supply controllers, internet, a console and games, and let you just play. You can even swap out consoles every hour if you want. Its all dual screen set ups too." Luke explained pulling out the flyer from his bag. "Depending on the private booth pass you get, you can play for 4 hours, or all day. The 4 hour pass comes with up to 2 free large drinks per person, and one full meal, nothing fancy, its all pretty much fast food. The all day pass comes a pitcher with free refills, and either two small meals per person, or a snack platter. " Luke explained looking over the flyer.

"Well... I guess I got nothing better to do... and privacy would be great now." Alex stated. "When do they close and how much do they charge for an all day pass?"

Luke looked over the flyer again, the prices down on the bottom, clearly only listing a few prices openly, just the commonly purchased pass, and leaving the real pricy stuff down in the little bullet notes for reference. "It looks like they are open till 1am, and an all day pass looks like it it will 350 for a full day private booth. That lets two people in the same booth, and if we wanted to invited others, it would be an extra 100 per mon, up to four people per booth. I mean price wise, to play any game we want on a rented system, plus food and to have it all brought to us, that's really good if we'll be there all day."

Alex just thought it over, before reaching back into her satchel and rubbing the bank envelopes she had. "Screw it, might as well, you know where on 9th? I don't exactly head over that way often, I normally stay around the down town and east sides of town mostly." She said, Luke nodding.

"Yeah, its a bit of a walk, but I can find it." Luke said.

"Lead the way." Alex smiled. "My treat, What good is all this saving if I can spend it every once in a while."

"O-oh... t-thanks." Luke said, surprised but thankful. "I guess we can go judge to see if this new shop is up to the offical name of Git Gud Game Galore. I-it will take about... well it takes me about almost 40 minutes average to get from the school to the waffle house, but I'm still doing good today, so we should manage that much faster. Its not that much of a detour from here and the main campus after all." Luke smiled, starting away the bank. Alex just nodded a bit, and gave one quick look to the Evermoore Towers, or namely the clock on the tower before turning follow it. Even if it took them an hour to get to the Git Gud Game Galore, they would still have plenty of time to enjoy, it was only just going on one o'clock after all.

Alex did a bit of power walk to catch up to Luke and walk with him now as they walked. "H-hey Alex... do... do you mind if... I ask you s-something about... why you hate your parents? Or at least s-sound like you d-do?" Luke asked as she caught up.

"My father would have me wear nothing but gothic victorian dresses, speak perfect Old English as my first language over United Common, act like a high class lady, and wanted my hair styled up at least a foot over my head... My mother encouraged him on some things." Alex just flat out stated. "And that's how it starts. Seriously, do I look like I care for a dress?" Alex grumbled, Luke just having to nod.

In all the time, even if it was just a few years, Luke could never have imaged, much less hope to see the weavile wear any kind of dress, or even try to pass as a high class lady. Alex was to be honest, far too blunt and while she did try to pick her words for things and clearly had a bit more of an education about things then she let on, even some strange ones that now seemed to make sense, Luke couldn't see Alex as anything but the gamer girl with an attitude she had now.

"The day I see you i-in a dress is the d-day I belive in ghosts." Luke smiled some. "Thanks for n-not hitting me... I just... family is important to me, so to know that you have such powerful parents... I just had to a-ask." Luke said.

"You never had much in that department did you? I never asked because it wasn't any of my business and you never shared anything other then it should be important." She said looking at him. "Mind if I ask about your family?"

"My parents were never around and my brother raised me until he disappeared one day. He left enough to get me here to college, but that was it. I don't know what to think about any of them to be honest. I looked, but I couldn't find much." Luke explained. "I still try looking up things from time to time, but no luck. Just maybe a name in the paper making a statement on other things every once in a while, but then nothing after I was born, and my brother never trusted authority figures, so I can only wonder."

"I see... that's why family is so important to you. At least others have family and know them. I guess we both have family issues." Alex said with a slight nod.

"Yeah, something like that I-i guess." Luke said as he continued to lead the way.

"So... I guess you can already figure out what I asked for... I'll need a parnter for multi-player games if I can get the slot. Its not like I'll be able to do that online for a while. You in?" Alex asked.

"For a chance to beta-test some games? Always. You sure you didn't get tossed around yourself in the diner asking a silly question like that?" Luke smiled.

"Good, if it pans out well, I'll let you know. They... they might make me keep it someplace safer then the apartment I got, I wouldn't put it past my parents to try something like that at first but we'll see." Alex said. "Wouldn't be the first time they tried something like that."

"Wow... they must really want a lady in the house or something." Luke almost gasped a bit looking at her again.

"My looks and more make me special in their eyes. I tried dying my hair, didn't take. I tried cutting it even though I like it long, but it grew back like weeds. Hell, I even tried some other obscure things to try and hide my unusual looks, but needless to say, here I am now having quit trying because it doesn't work." Alex sighed. "So, crimson red hair that stands out and a dull purple crown jewel are what mons see first and what they get."

"Yeah... I understand." Luke nodded. "Pokemon these days, always obessed about the ones who stand out. I would have though that this "shiny" craze would have died out long ago, but people just can't get over how a pokemon looks first. I mean that's kinda good for me, I look proper and so they don't ask much about my lungs first, but it would be nice if pokemon saw the whole mon first instead of the unique colors."

"I will never argue that. Colors aren't everything, and blood shouldn't be either. Everyone should be judged by their own personal worth." Alex stated, so very much in agreement with Luke now.

"Yeah, might be a better world if others had that kind of thinking." Luke nodded again. "Wishful t-thinking, but hey, a little hope never hurt."

"Never does... like maybe hoping they do more than just have the next gen games and systems. I don't have a big place, so that's all I really have my apartment right now." Alex said. "If it doesn't fit on the harddrive or an storage card, then I can't exactly keep it around."

"Tamilo88 says they have all the good stuff, and you can't go wrong with a few classics." Luke agreed as they turned north heading for 9th now that Luke thought that they were on the right stretch of road. "We'll find out when we get there. What exactly are you h-hoping for?"

"Well... I've got a good number of classics on my Wii's and some on the playstation, but I'm thinking older. Maybe... some... yeah, some N64 games. When was the last time that you saw a legit nintendo 64 system. All the collectors are snatching em like candy anymore, its getting hard to find the legit system even if the carts are kinda easy to find if you know where to look." Alex grinned.

"Brings b-back my childhood. First system that Rick got me was a nintendo 64, used sure, but its what we could afford. I couldn't exactly do much with my condition back then and he felt back that I was struggling in school because I couldn't get along with people as well as I'd like." Luke smiled.

"Yep. And any multi-player games had to be in the house. None of this wireless cross country crap with ten years olds claiming that they fucked your mom last night. I don't care who you wre back then, you tried to say something like that to the actual face of another player and the nicest thing that would happen would be that they punched you in the face, before said "mother" turned you over and tanned your hide red." Alex smirked. "The internet has its place, it is the information age and all that, but respect in games is kind of a rarity. I don't care how good you are, you want in the Matrix Infinity Clan on Steam or Sony's network and they find you were slinging around words like that, you'd get blacklist in a heartbeat from all their servers." Alex smiled. "Not many like them around, but its still a good group. Speaking of Matrix Infinity though, I haven't seen your gamer IDs on there yet? You getting the run around with them or just not have time to request entry yet?"

"Eh... its … well its a massive g-group. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with such a large group." Luke said.

"Its fine if you don't want to. I'll vouch for you if it comes to that, but to all their own. I mostly joined for the politeness. None of this stupid get in the kitchen and make me a sammich bullshit. There are legit gamer girls out there, and we're not that much different from the rest of you." Alex said.

Luke just laughed a bit. "Yeah... you swear as much as the rest of us and you certainly don't put up with the lousy trends."

"Yep..." Alex grinned a bit. "The last guy who thought he was being smart and demanded boobs with a timestamp spent the rest of the game with player paid bounties on him, and we turned it into a two hour hunt for him in GTA Online, the baby was whining and crying by the end. Boy did we hound him and smash his toys. Its was almost sad how over half of his vehicles were destoryed by intentionally set up enviormental hazards so that we didn't have to pay the bad sport card. Last I heard even after that, one of the Group Wardens has to call off the hounds even after he was booted from the group and the deal was he had to give back all of the rewards he got from the group in full if he ever wanted back in. I almost feel bad for him... well almost... more like how you feel bad for locking the cheating AI into a loop and utterly thrash them into the wall over and over again for fun."

"Yeah... part of why I never try to get on your bad side." Luke laughed a bit more. "After that little problem today, I have this feeling you might try that in real life and win."

"The thought has crossed my mind with a few people, but don't worry. I like you too much. Friends like you are find, and harder to keep." Alex smiled.

"Thanks." Luke said as they easily moved up through the streets, finally seeing the waffle house. "And that's the waffle house. Could be a place to stop by on our way out for a real meal."

"That's an idea alright. We'll just see how late it is when we get out." Alex said as they kept up their strong pace, but now their curiosity lead them the rest of the way being rather quiet wondering what the mind find for the place.

It didn't take them too much longer now as they reached 9th, and quickly found the waffle house a few lots down from the corner, and then towards the end of the street it was on was sign for the video game bar, another sign down the road for parking.

"Just … how big is this place?" Alex asked seeing two different signs for the place, but heading down towards the main sign for the place, Luke at her side. A large barn like garage was in the way, but already they could hear some weak rock music as they got closer and rounded the barn to see it. "Well... I see they just took the old... what is that a... Giant Pidgeot sign? Whatever, we'll call it a Giant Pidgeot and repurposed it. It does have all the room a place should need, and probably more." Alex stated looking over the place in full. From the outside it wasn't much to look at, no different then any of the older rental stores of old, flashy enough to be noticed, but not agreesively so. The windows had all been tinted black though, and aside from the giant sign that took up pretty much the entirety of the roof side, it was fairly basic. Of course the dozen or so massive game characters like Master Cheif, Cranky Kong, Mario and Luigi, and several others all with a speech bubble that had some variation of "Git Gud" or "Play again" in it surrounding the Games Galore main sign was still a fancy sight.

"Well, screw them for giving me a run for my money on my satchel." Alex laughed a bit, Luke smiling some as well.

"If n-nothing else, they have style." Luke smiled himself as he sped up just enough to get to the door first.

"Thank you." Alex teased some as she walked in the place still having the double doors from the grocery in place if not automated, but still all the windows were tinted as Luke got the door for her again, but once he opened the second door, the rock music from before was clearly much louder.

"Wow... Chuck-E-Cheese for gamers on steroids." Alex stated looking in on the place, rows and rows of arcade machines in the middle, even some other games like ski-ball and some light gun games there in the middle, the coin slots changed to accept coin and what looked like a card reader. On the sides of the room and taking up tons of space towards the back were what had to be at least an easy hundred console system set ups, very clear signs showing what system and what games were in each section, each section even having a full on name based on the company.

Tons of various game icons, toys, figures and so much more were in glass cases just to be shown off, treasured, and some of them even had various amounts next to them, several ticket machine games visible as well. Looking around only rewarded them with a great view of other things as well, such as a giant Dungeons and Dragonites Sign with a few arrows pointing to a seperated section, Luke watching a few people with large folders and files, with noticeable dice bags with them showing that appearently the place also managed and either hosted or let others host pen and paper games. Then of course, there were all the hanging balloons of game characters and other iconic gaming symbols.

"And then some..." Luke stated lookinga round, a large counter right by the door.

"Hey, come on in, games go fast so stop wasting time." The greeter at the desk called out, someone dressed up as a mascot Luigi. "You look different. First time here?"

"Yep. Had a day I didn't know to do with and need a break." Alex stated.

"Welp, you're in luck. First Timer Special is still going up. All drinks get a free upgrade to the next size up no charge, or if you get a private booth, free batch of cookies while supplies last." The greeter smiled moving over to a register. "So, what's your delight? Passes or a booth today?"

"We'll go for an all day private booth." Alex said moving up with Luke.

"Big Spenders huh? Then we have to make sure to make the fun match the price. You got a preference on first floor or over hang?" The greeter asked. "No price difference, just need to known which booth to set up for you." Alex and Luke just looked over the place, sure enough a large balcony set up on two walls.

"Over hang looks more private." Alex said looking to Luke, who just nodded.

"Over Hang it is, and you'll need this. This is our console catalogue. You can pick what console you want from it and if you don't like the console, we'll come set up a new one every hour if you want. Once you pick a console, then we'll worry about the games." The greeter smiled.

"Do you have the N64? I want classics." Alex stated.

"Preaching to the chior. Can't have a good game without respecting the oldies." The greeter grinned, marking them down for N64. "And here's the games we have on hand, you can pick up to five at a time. My advice, pick 3 at least to start. Make one of the the game you clearly have your heart set and then try something new perhaps. Sometimes it gets crowded and we don't have enough copies if a craze hits, so it never hurts to have a spare game choice. If someone else has the game pulled up already, we can set you on the reserve list for it as soon as it opens up and gets cleaned. Do you have your own memory cards or do you need to borrow some? We delete all data on them every night so it won't carry over from day to day, but if you've got a long game like Turok or something that needs a card to save, you'll be happy to have it incase you decided to play all day and screw up somewhere or die." He continued, quickly putting back the first catalogue and pulling out a different one, this all about the Nintendo 64. "Just a heads up though, we usually don't keep too many sports games on hand, just the more recent ones for the system, so apologies in advance if you your heart set on a specific year of sports game."

"No worries there, I never got into sports games. We will however need to borrow a card." Alex said as she took the catalogue. "So... anything really stand out?" She asked looking through the list, pages set up by genre for now, all games either marked blue for solo-play campaigns, orange for competetive multi-player, green for co-op, and gold for any combonation of them.

"Well Luke... ideas?" Alex asked pullling the catalogue over for him to look at as well.

"Nintendo always did have some nice party games. Mario games in general if they have multi-player are good." He stated.

"We got copies of Mario Kart, and some of the Mario sports games. Oh, and Super Smash Brothers, the one that started it all. We do have Mario Party 2 and 3, but not the first one. There's still that whole controller spinning mini-game thing going on, so I'm told not to ask about it, but I know for certain that Nintendo actually reprinted a number of the games for us to use in places like this. Just none that might have had issues." The greeter offered, making sure to keep up with suggestions.

"Mario Kart or Mario Party 3 definitely." Alex grinned looking to Luke. "Anything else look good?"

"How... how about F-Zero? Or Smash Brothers?" Luke suggested.

"Smash of course." Alex grinned. "Can't say I had you pegged for racing games though, but the whole sci-fi thing, definitely up your alley." Alex added.

"So, start off with Mario Kart, Mario Party 3, and Super Smash Brothers. You can reserve up to two more right now if you want." The greeter stated setting up the game order.

"You have any good co-op games?" Alex asked.

"Now you see, that one I can't name by name sadly. I was always part of a competetive group. I know that Perfect Dark, the Spiritual Sucessor to 007 Goldeneye, the James Bond game, had some co-op game modes, but otherwise I'm afraid that I can't say much. The catalogue has it all listed clearly though." The greeter explained. "More of the co-op games that I can name are all on later systems, but if you are set for co-op, I really enjoy the Borderlands Games, and I personally feel the first one is the best. If you have online saves for the consoles, you could play some minecraft on your own world, but I really don't recommend minecraft without saves because what's the point of building if you can't keep it and show it off."

"I fully understand." Luke nodded. "Hmm, how about this one?" He asked flipping through the pages and finding one called Goemon's Great Adventure. "Goemon... I know that name... but can't recall it, I know its popular in the east I think."

"Goemon's Great Adventure. Yeah, that one seems to haveco-op, but kinda get mixed word on it. Most of the rentors say its either a good or decent solo-game, nice music, but game play is back forth, they keep comparing it to another bigger Goemon game on the same system." The greeter explained.

"Sure, why not. I've never played it, but the n64 was kind of known for more great games then not from what all I remember." Alex stated. "We'll start with his Goemon adventure game, Mario Kart and Party 3, and Smash Brothers for now, and I think that's it." Alex continued as she handed the catalogue back.

"Good picks, good picks." The greeter smirked. "Hey Dexi, need a ring up for some all day private passes." The greeter called up, a "Princess Peach" mascot coming up from the back as the greeter wrote up a quick list for the cashier.

"Sure thing, how many?" The cashier stated as she came out looking over. "Oh hey Luke. Its me, Columbian Crazy, The 69er Miner. I see you finally came on over to check out the new job." The cashier smiled. "And who is this with you?"

"Oh, hey Miner. Or would Dexi work here in public?" Luke asked as Alex walked up the register with Luke as princess put a few cards in a machine and coded them for new passes.

"Either works, but you haven't answered my question." Dexi said getting their order set up.

"I'm Alex. Just needed a day off and Luke suggested that this place was the gaming hang out." Alex said.

"That Diner by the south end of the college right, not far from the lecture hall? Uh... what's it called... Moon something?" Dexi stated before setting the cards back on the counter, before setting up the starting order.

"Moon Grove Delights." Alex stated pulling up her satchel and getting the cash out. "350 for an all day pass for two right?"

"That is right, just give me a few to get it rung up, taxes and all that. I've heard a lot about the diner, but I work during the day and need a nap before my night classes, so never had a chance to give it a try." Dexi explained. "And you're total for the day is 378.80... what.. oh right. That college tax went through and upped it to eight point two percent. Of course just a few days after we open and starting today, so need to rememorize all the numbers." Dexi said as she took the cash that Alex had pulled out.

"And your change is 21.20. Now, these are your access cards. They are coded to the lockers over in the side room here where you can store your extra things, just look for the matching numbers and make sure to get them on the way out. Also, don't take the cards outside or that door gets loud. When you're done and ready to leave, you can just hand the cards to any of the cashiers at this counter, or you can put them in that Pokemon Crossing mailbox on the counter if no one is here. These cards can pay for free small drinks since you got an all day, but we still recommend the pitcher in the booth. You can also use them to pay for your meals, but remember, its either meals or a snack platter. You get one or the other, and have to pay for extras beyond that. Food Court is between the Sony Center and Microsoft Plaza over there." Dexi said pointing to the two signs, the food booth clearly there, but its signs were hidden among all of the game signs and lights.

"These cards are also credits for non-ticket game in the place, just swipe and play as you get the chance. Most importantly though, these cards are needed when you want to change up games or consoles in your booth. There's a tablet up there that you just swipe the card in and it will bring up a menu asking what you want, things like food, new games, console swap, its all easy to read and just touch screen. There is also a phone up there if you need some more unique support. If you do want to play any of the ticket games, the prize booth also sells tokens or can charge your cards for credits. Now the last thing that I need form you before you run off to booth 14 on this staircase behind me is just to know what kind of cookies you want, and what your first drink of choice is." Dexi said explaining the last of the basic rules to them, as well as pulling out a sheet that had the list of drinks and what kind of cookies they had.

"Oh, peanut butter suger cookies hands down." Alex grinned seeing them on the list. "And what do you want to drink Luke?" Alex turned.

"Basic Coka-Cola is good for me to start with." Luke said.

"You heard him, coke to start." Alex said handing him one card.

"Alright, will do, give our attendant about 5 minutes to get there and set up the booth if you want to go on up or you can look around for few. Remember, booth 14, up the stair case behind me." Dexi said. "Oh, and Luke, you still owe me a race later, don't forget."

"I won't, you've j-just been busy Miner." Luke smiked as he followed Alex into the side room to put their things away in the lockers. "Well, the first g-glance looks great for this place." Luke smiled as he scanned his card to the matching locker and put his bag inside. Although it was a tight fit given what all he kept with him, he felt safe enough here to leave everything put away. Even Alex was putting everything away aside from her satchel, and she rarely left her bag in a strange place from what Luke knew of her.

"Come on, I'm ready for some games." Alex smiled as she waited fo rhim to finish putting his things away. As soon as they were, they started for the once stair case and then moved up to the partial second floor, severaml more games up there, plenty of arcade machines there, many in use with groups by almost all the machines. Opposite of the arcade machines were several booths that were sectioned off, almost three times the size of the standard diner booth, each one also clearly numbered, once again each one marked by a game character pointing to a curtain and holding up a minecraft sign with a number on it.

"And this is booth 14... looks like … oh boy, perhaps the single best gaurdian there is... Who would pick a fight with a Tonberry?" Alex grinned, almost laughing as she moved into the booth. She couldn't help but look it over, a nice table with charging station against one wall, with the tablet and card scanner that would let them order whatever they needed. On the other sid eof the booth were the twin screens, a clear divider between them, but far more impressive were the two twin couches in the booth, a small desk in the middle that had hook ups for the tv's behind it on the wall.

"You must be the rentors. I'm Steve and I build everything." A new person walked in behind them with a small cart, the person clearly dressed up as Steve from Minecraft. "If you would give me a second to get my crafting table there, I can get your fancy game station ready." He continued rather cheerfully, taking a case off the cart and just setting on the desk, just taking the top of the case off and setting underneath the desk.

By just connecting a few cords to the slots on the wall, everything was ready as he moved back, handing Alex a small case with the games for the nintendo 64, moving out of the way to show a very showey custom skinned nintendo 64 system set up, along with four controllers already set up.

"There you are, enjoy." Steve stated as he took the cart and when to set up and check on the other booths. "If you need anything, just ring me up." He stated with a wave and left them be.

"Service with a smile... I'm happy." Alex smiled, moving over to one of the couches. "Let's game."


End file.
